5-13. The Fall of Arianism
The declining years of Athanasius were spent in peace. Heathenism was still a power at Alexandria, but the Arians were nearly extinct. One of his last public acts was to receive a confession presented on behalf of Marcellus, who was still living in extreme old age at Ancyra. It was a sound confession so far as it went ; and though Athanasius did not agree with Marcellus, he had never thought his errors vital. So he accepted it, refusing once again to sacrifice the old companion of his exile. It was nobly done ; but it did not conciliate Basil.
The school of Marcellus expired with him, and if Apollinarius was forming another, he was at any rate a resolute enemy of Arianism. Meanwhile the churches of the East seemed in a state of universal dissolution. Disorder under Constantius became confusion worse confounded under Valens. The exiled bishops were so many centres of strife, and personal quarrels had full scope. When for example Basil's brother Gregory was expelled from Nyssa by a riot got up by Anthimus of Tyana, he took refuge under the eyes of Anthimus at Doara, where another riot had driven out the Arian bishop. Creeds were in the same confusion. The Homoeans had no consistent principle beyond the rejection of technical terms. Some of their bishops were substantially Nicenes, while others were thoroughgoing Anomoeans. There was room for all in the happy family of Demophilus. Church history records no clearer period of decline than this. The descent from Athanasius to Basil is plain; from Basil to Cyril it is rapid. The victors of Constantinople are but the Epigoni of a mighty contest.
Athanasius passed away in 373, and Alexandria became the prey of Arian violence. The deliverance came suddenly, and in the confusion of the greatest disaster that had ever yet befallen Rome. When the Huns came up from the Asiatic steppes, the Goths sought refuge beneath the shelter of the Roman eagles. But the greed and peculations of Roman officials drove them to revolt: and when Valens himself with the whole army of the East encountered them near Hadrianople (9 Aug. 378) his defeat was overwhelming. Full two-thirds of the Roman army perished in the slaughter, and the emperor himself was never heard of more. The blow was crushing : for the first time since the days of Gallienus, the Empire could place no army in the field.
The care of the whole world now rested on the Western emperor, Gratian the son of Valentinian, a youth of nineteen. Gratian was a zealous Christian, and as a Western he held the Nicene faith. His first step was to proclaim religious liberty in the East, except for Anomoeans and Photinians — a small sect supposed to have pushed the doctrine of Marcellus too far. As toleration was still the general law of the Empire (though Valens might have exiled individual bishops) the gain of the rescript fell almost entirely to the Nicenes. The exiles found little difficulty in resuming the government of their flocks, or even in sending missions to the few places where the Arians were strong, like that undertaken by Gregory of Nazianzus to Constantinople. The Semiarians were divided. Numbers of them joined the Nicenes, while the rest took an independent position. Thus the Homoean power in the provinces collapsed of itself, and almost without a struggle, before it was touched by persecution.
Gratian's next step was to share his heavy burden with a colleague. The new emperor came from the far West of Cauca near Segovia, and to him was entrusted the Gothic war, and with it the government of all the provinces east of Sirmium. Theodosius was therefore a Western and a Nicene, with a full measure of Spanish courage and intolerance. The war was not very dangerous, for the Goths could do nothing with their victory, and Theodosius was able to deal with the Church long before it ended. A dangerous illness early in 380 led to his baptism by Acholius of Thessalonica; and this was the natural signal for a more decided policy. A law dated 27 Feb. 380 commanded all men to follow the Nicene doctrine, “committed by the apostle Peter to the Romans, and now professed by Damasue of Rome and Peter of Alexandria” and threatened heretics with temporal punishment. In this he seems to abandon Constantine's test of orthodoxy by subscription to a creed, returning to Aurelian's requirement of communion with the chief bishops of Christendom. But the mention of St Peter and the choice both of Rome and Alexandria, are enough to shew that he was still a stranger to the state of parties in the East.
Theodosius made his formal entry into Constantinople 24 Nov. 380, and at once required the bishop either to accept the Nicene faith or to leave the city. Demophilus honourably refused to give up his heresy and adjourned his services to the suburbs. But the mob of Constantinople was Arian, and their stormy demonstrations when the cathedral of the Twelve Apostles was given up to Gregory of Nazianzus made Theodosius waver. Not for long. A second edict in Jan. 381 forbade all heretical assemblies inside cities, and ordered the churches everywhere to be given up to the Nicenes. Thus was Arianism put down as it had been set up, by the civil power. Nothing remained but to clear away the wrecks of the contest.
Once more an imperial summons went forth for a council of the Eastern bishops to meet at Constantinople in May 381. It was a sombre gathering : even the conquerors can have had no more hopeful feeling than that of satisfaction to see the end of the long contest. Only 150 bishops were present — none from the west of Thessalonica. The Semiarians however mustered 36, under Eleusius of Cyzicus. Meletius of Antioch presided, and the Egyptians were not invited to the earlier sittings, or at least were not present. Theodosius was no longer neutral as between the old and new Nicenes. After ratifying the choice of Gregory of Nazianzus as bishop of Constantinople, the next move was to sound the Semiarians. They were still a strong party beyond the Bosphorus, so that their friendship was important. But Eleusius was not to be tempted. However he might oppose the Anomoeans, he could not forgive the Nicenes their doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Those of the Semiarians who were willing to join the Nicenes had already done so, and the rest were obstinate. They withdrew from the council and gave up their churches like the Arians.
Whatever jealousies might divide the conquerors, the contest with Arianism was now at an end. Pontus and Syria were still divided from Rome and Egypt on the question of Meletius, and there were germs of future trouble in the disposition of Alexandria to look to Rome for help against the upstart see of Constantinople. But against Arianism the council was united. Its first canon is a solemn ratification of the Nicene creed in its original form, with an anathema against all the Arianising parties. It only remained for the emperor to complete the work of the council. An edict in the middle of July forbade Arians of all sorts to build churches even outside cities; and at the end of the month Theodosius issued an amended definition of orthodoxy. The true faith was henceforth to be guarded by the demand of communion, no longer with Rome and Alexandria, but with Constantinople, Alexandria, and the chief sees of the East: and the choice of cities is significant. A small place like Nyssa might be included for the personal eminence of its bishop; but the omission of Hadrianople, Perinthus, Ephesus and Nicomedia shews the determination to leave a clear field for the supremacy of Constantinople.
So far as numbers went, the cause of Arianism was not hopeless even yet. It was fairly strong in Asia, could raise dangerous riots in Constantinople, and had on its side the Western empress-mother Justina. But its fate was only a question of time. Its cold logic generated no fiery enthusiasm, its recent origin allowed no venerable traditions to grow up round it, and its imperial claims cut it off from any appeal to provincial feeling. So when the last overtures of Theodosius fell through in 383, Arianism soon ceased to be a religion in the civilised world. Such existence as it kept up for the next three hundred years was due to its barbarian converts.
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